new and blue

I mentioned to Lolly in my reply to her comment that among my reasons for being happy to have finished my mom’s sweater was the fact that I’m now free to play around more with the current Project Spectrum colors (of which that dark olive green is certainly not a member). While realistically, I probably need a new project like I need a…well…something I don’t need (I’m still a little braindead from being sick, I can’t think of a clever analogy!), I really would like to do a little bit of warmer-weather knitting before it, you know, gets warm. I mentioned awhile ago that I had some GGH Java in a really lovely blue that I want to use to make Aprikot Jacke (in a decidedly non-apricot color) from Rebecca #27. So I decided, what the heck, I’ll go ahead and do it, even if it means I probably won’t finish either of my current sweaters before the Project Spectrum color triad changes. C’est la vie.

My dad will laugh when he sees this, because the color I’m about to show you is, well, really popular amongst items in my wardrobe. And…not so popular with him, as it’s quite close to the color of his rival team (he got his Ph.D at Duke, and is thus not so fond of UNC’s light blue). He teased me a bit the last time I was up visiting because of all of the things I own that are this light blue (with a slight twinge of green) color. Just among the things I had with me on that trip, there’s my Rogue, my fleece cardigan, my lightweight jacket, and my fine-gauge turtleneck sweater. But it’s a color that looks really, really good on me, so I don’t mind having a lot of it. Here it is:

The color isn’t quite true in the picture…it’s a bit brighter, I think. I don’t know what to call it. Duck egg blue? Robin egg blue? Aquamarine? Lovat? In any case, I love it. I just started this morning, and I’ve already got a little bit of the back ribbing done:

I’m really liking how this yarn feels. I’m not generally a fan of knitting with cotton, and the lack of give does make it a bit hard to keep my stitches even, but it’s not hurting my hands the way some cotton does. You’ll notice I’m knitting this on straights…that’s because I need the same size needles for this sweater as I am currently using for Demi. Luckily, I happen to have a pair of size-8 straights. One of these days, though, I’d really like to get a second set of Denise needles, because due to my tendency to knit a lot of things in the 5-8 range, I run into this problem a lot. But that will just have to wait.

I’m not quite sure the best way to handle knitting two sweaters. I’m thinking what I will do is make a sort of schedule: even numbered days are for Aprikot Jacke, odd numbered days are for Demi. If it winds up feeling too restrictive, then I’ll give up on that, but I’m someone who actually really craves having systems and schedules in my life, so I think it will actually be good for me. As for the socks I’m working on, those make good things to take with me when I’m running errands and have to wait in line or something, or when I go to our little department knitting group (which I actually haven’t been to in quite awhile now!), so that’s what I’ll do with those. I don’t think I could ever handle “project monogamy” the way some people do, so y’all will just have to put up with my bouncing from project to project. It means more pictures, anyway!